


Collection of common mistakes - a resource for fanfic writers and their proofreaders

by Tarragon_Leigh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Are the character tags fair?, I make mistakes as well, Mistakes, Other, a resource, for authors, for proofreaders, i like tags, shocking!, spelling, the actual meaning of words and expressions, use this thing!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:48:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26834722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarragon_Leigh/pseuds/Tarragon_Leigh
Summary: Just as the title says: there are certain words and expressions that I see spelled wrongly or misinterpreted quite often, even in works that are proofread. That leads me to think that... a lot of people might just not know the spelling or meaning of these words, including proofreaders. Here's a handy list of them so you can check your own work or the work you're proofreading. Not going to include rare mistakes - if I see it happen at least 3 times by a different author each time, it will be eligible. I did search AO3 and found nothing exactly like this, but if there is, sorry about that!Note that I only edit most chapters and only rarely add new ones, so I'll try to set this work to 5/5 chapters for now, even though it is not likely to ever really be finished.
Relationships: editor/spelling
Comments: 18
Kudos: 15





	1. Harry Potter related stuff

**Author's Note:**

> There will be several chapters: one for each type of mistake as I classify them (I find some to be ambiguous, just going to use my best judgement), and one for each fandom that I collect enough fandom-specific errors for, on my own or by submission (starting only with HP). As you can see, this work is filed under the HP fandom. 2 reasons: 1- I read a lot of HP fanfic and so I've collected quite a few HP-specific errors and am kind of coming at this whole thing from that angle, 2- the HP fandom is huge, so this will hopefully reach a lot of people (hopefully spreading outside the immediate fandom as well).  
> You can also see that this work is labelled 'graphic descriptions of violence'. Yes, that is what my sense of humour is like.  
> I'm not going to include rare mistakes: if I see something occur at least 3 times by a different author each time, then I might include it.  
> Will file these things more or less alphabetically; use ctrl+f to search each chapter for specifics if they get long.
> 
> Ironically, this work is unedited and not proofread (by anyone other than myself)

**Animagus and animagi**. 'Animagus' is the singular, 'animagi' is the plural. I often see the plural used for a single animagus.

 **Daily Prophet** , where it needs pointing out that **profit** is not the same as **prophet**. So no, it's not the 'Daily Profit'. Now I realise that a lot of people do this on purpose, as a pun (quite apt). However, I also see many writers use this entirely seriously, apparently unaware that it's not the actual name of the paper in canon. I'm not sure if they are unaware of the spelling of the word 'prophet' differing from that of 'profit', or if maybe they know what the word means and think 'profit' is the simply what the paper is called (I would be highly amused by a wix world where they have a paper focused on business and the economy called the Daily Profit, possibly affiliated with the Daily Prophet). Now for a short bit on the words 'profit' and 'prophet' just in case. _'Profit'_ , noun or verb - as a noun: benefit/advantage/financial gain, as a verb: the obtaining of those things. _'Prophet'_ , noun: someone regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of (a) god.

 **Ginevra or Ginerva** Weasley? It's Ginevra. I know with McGonagall being called Minerva it's confusing, and very tempting to use Ginerva, but still wrong.

 **Hallows or hollows?** That actually depends: if you're referring to the Deathly H **a** llows --> yes, it's hallows. Then again, if you're on about Godric's H **o** llow, the village, then it's hollow. See also 'hollow (adj.) - having a hole or empty space inside' and 'hallow (v.) - to give something great importance and respect, or to make something holy'. As a noun, 'hallow' generally means saint, though in HP the hallows are objects, so probably something like 'holy or very respected and old objects'.

The **Holyhead Harpies** , not the **Hollyhead** Harpies. I suspect it's the same kind of problem as with 'Madam Rosmerta'. It sounds like 'holly', but it's still written 'Holyhead'.

 **Inferi** and inferius. Inferi is the plural, the singular is inferius. "One inferius, five inferi"

 **Metamorphmagus and metamorphmagi**. See 'animagus'.

 **Occlumency and 'an occlumens'** , not _occlumancy_ or 'occlumancer' (or 'occlumans'). This one isn't like necromancy and necromancer. It also isn't _occulmency_ (or occulmancy). It comes from occludere (to block) and mens (mind), not from oculus (eye), no matter that you have to look someone in the eyes to perform legilimency (and same for that: '-mens' and '-mency', not '-mancer' or '-mancy').

 **Parselmouth and parseltongue**. You are a parselmouth. You speak parseltongue. You are not a parseltongue.

 **Parvati or Pavarti?** It's number 1- Parvati. Yeah really. I know right? I think I actually see the second one more often and I think people in general now think that one's it. It's not though.

 **Pensieve** , not **pensive** , if you're talking about the bowl where memories can be viewed. In many cases, this will be a kind of autocorrect error probably, but still.

 **Phial or phail?** It's phial. Like Vial. See also 'vial' ;)

 **Privet Drive** please, not **Private** Drive, when it's the street where Harry had to unfortunately spend much of his childhood.

 **Rosmerta** , not **Rosemerta**. I know it sounds like 'rose' at the start there. It's still 'Madam Rosmerta', though.

Ancient **Runes** , not Ancient **Ruins** (although I totally consider the latter to be an interesting field of study as well). 'Runes' and 'ruins' are different words. _'Runes'_ are the letters in the runic alphabets. _'Ruins'_ is the plural of the noun 'ruin', or the third person present of the verb 'to ruin'. The noun means 'the remains of a building' (usually a very old one). The verb means something like 'to destroy', 'to devastate'.

 **Vial or vile?** Vial is the small flask to put your potion in, it's a noun. Vile is disgusting and abhorrent and not a noun.

 **Victoire or Victorie?**. Fleur and Bill's daughter is called Victoire. It's French, and not spelled (nor pronounced) 'victorie'.

 **Voldemort, Voldermort** , which one is it? Yeah it's the first one. Without the 'r'.

 **Zabini, Zambini** , which one is it? First one once again! Blaise Zabini. Zabini.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially going to start with what I can remember, going to add more as I come across it. Feel free to submit things in the comments, please also point me to at least one instance of what you're submitting so I can take a look before I decide to add it.  
> Other fandom-specific mistakes than HP are also welcome, though I will not make a separate chapter for those (or link the work to other fandoms than HP) until I have a reasonable amount of them.


	2. Spelling errors and confusing the spelling of one word for the spelling of another, part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the title sums it up quite well.
> 
> I've also been asked to add the disclaimer that I'm doing this all for entirely selfish reasons (see also: some of the examples in this chapter :P)
> 
> note on 22/10/2020: If this gets much longer it will be split up into two chapters. 27/10/2020: This is now the first of two chapters.

**Accept and except**. _'To accept'_ is a verb meaning 'to consent to receiving or doing something' or 'to (come to) recognise something as valid/correct'. _'Except'_ means 'not including/other than' and is also used in the same way people often use 'only' ("I wouldn't ask you for help, only I need to get it done by tomorrow" --> "I wouldn't ask you, except that I need to get it done by tomorrow"). It can also be a verb that specifies that something is excluded from a category/group.

 **Affect and effect**. To start with the most helpful bit: if you generally use 'effect' as a noun and 'affect' as a verb, you'll usually be fine. Now for why. _'Effect_ as a noun means 'a change that happened as a result/consequence of something', 'the extent to which something succeeds/happens' (or it's used as in 'special effects' in film etc and sometimes it's meant as 'personal belongings'). As a verb, 'to effect' means 'to cause something to happen' ("they effected change"). _'Affect'_ as a verb has two kinds of meanings. The first is 'to touch/have an effect on', physically or emotionally ("all of our work was affected") (and you can see, I think, where the trouble starts with these words). The second is 'to pretend to feel something' (visibly, to others) or to 'assume/wear something very obviously to make an impression on people' ("she affected grief at the funeral" and "Gilderoy affected a foreign accent"). As a noun, it means 'emotion as influencing behaviour'.

 **Allowed and aloud**. _'Allowed'_ is the past tense or past participle of the verb 'to allow' ("She is not allowed to go to Hogsmeade"). _'Aloud'_ is an adverb meaning 'not silently (or whispering), that something is audible ("Please repeat that spell aloud").

 **Apart and a part**. Yes, these are actually different words and what's worse: when you mistake them you often end up saying just about the opposite of what you mean to say. "Harry was _apart from_ Gryffindor" means Harry wasn't really one of the Gryffindors, that he's in some way different from them or doesn't belong, even if it's only something like him feeling that way. "Harry was _a part of_ Gryffindor" means Harry fits in with the others there, that he belongs. 'Apart' is an adverb. 'A part', as you can see from the 'a' there, is a noun, though 'part' on its own can also be a verb or an adverb.

 **Apologies** is not **apologises**. "She apologises for her mistake" --> _apologises_ is the present tense, third person singular, of 'to apologise'. _Apologies_ is the plural of 'apology', a noun ("Oh, my apologies, I didn't mean to step on your foot"). I realise that this is likely a typo or autocorrect issue in many cases, but still.

 **Baited and bated**. "He was waiting with _bated_ breath", not 'baited' breath. _'Bated'_ here is an adjective meaning 'in great suspense', 'very anxiously'. Think of 'abate', to which it is related. _'Baited_ is the past tense of the verb 'to bait' (to put bait on a hook or to deliberately annoy/taunt).

 **Barring** is not the same as **baring**. _'To bar'_ can mean to close/fasten something with a bar, to mark something with bars, and to prevent or prohibit something from happening/someone from doing something. The preposition 'barring' means 'if not for' or 'except for'. _'To bare'_ means 'to uncover/reveal/expose'.

 **Bear and Bare**. _'Bear'_ , verb or noun. A bear as a noun is an animal. To bear as a verb means to carry, literally and figuratively. One expression is "to bear a burden", you don't bare the burden. _'Bare'_ , verb or adjective. Bare as an adjective means uncovered or basic/simple/without addition ("The bare necessities", not "bear necessities", that Jungle Book film notwithstanding). To bare means to reveal, to uncover. "He bared his soul to me". He didn't 'bear' his soul to me, in that expression. Usually goes wrong when they are used as verbs (I can't say I've seen anyone call the animal a 'bare', so far, but I have seen people use 'bear' instead of 'bare' when they should be using the adjective 'bare'). As an addendum: you are 'bearing' (carrying) a child when you are pregnant, not 'baring' (uncovering/taking off its clothes) one.

 **Break and brake**. _'Break'_ , verb or noun. As a verb, it has quite a lot of meanings. Just a few examples: 'To split into pieces as a result of a blow or strain' and 'to make/become inoperative (not working)', 'to interrupt', or 'to fail to comply with a law/agreement/regulation'. It has as many meanings as a noun as well. Again, some examples: 'an interruption', 'a pause in work (or other such things)', 'an opening'. Up until the 19th century or so, 'break' was sometimes used to mean the same thing as 'brake', but it can no longer be used that way. These days I see the mistake usually go the other way around anyway (brake being used where it should be break). _'Brake'_ , noun or verb. As a noun, it has quite a few very specific uses that I'm not going to list (as I've never seen anyone use them in fanfiction so far). The meaning people are looking for is generally 'a device for slowing/stopping a moving vehicle' (can be used figuratively as well). The verb means 'to slow down/stop a moving vehicle (by using a brake). So, it's 'Yule break' or 'Easter break', not 'Yule brake' etc.

 **Conscience** is not the same as **conscious**. _'Conscious'_ is 'awake', 'aware' (or 'awareness' as a noun). "Trelawney is miraculously still conscious." _'Conscience'_ is your sense of right and wrong, the trope of the little voice/angels/devils telling you to do or not do something. "A guilty conscience." While in some special cases a writer might deliberately say that "it's your conscious trying to tell you something", in most cases they meant 'conscience' instead and slipped up.

 **Definitely** , adverb ("without doubt"), which is not spelled like either of these: **Definately** , **Defiantly**. Where 'definately' is spelled wrongly and 'defiantly' is spelled wrongly if you mean to say 'definitely' and _also_ is an actual word with a different meaning than 'definitely' (namely "in bold disobedience or opposition")

 **Draws and drawers**. _'Drawers'_ , plural of drawer, a noun meaning a box-shaped compartment that slides (usually horizontally) out of something like a desk or closet. Can also mean underpants, or someone who makes drawings. _'Draws'_ , while it can be a noun, does not have anything to do with the sliding box you store stuff in (though I realise if you've never seen it written, the pronunciation especially in British English can be misleading).

 **Due and do**. "It's due to the weather that...". "We'll have to make do". We don't "make due" and it's not "do to (something) that...". There are people making half-decent arguments for 'make due' and in time it may move to chapter 5, but for now it's wrong.

 **Ensure and insure**. Both are verbs. _'Ensure'_ means 'to make sure that something will happen'. _'Insure'_ means 'to arrange for compensation in the event of (something)' or 'to protect someone against (something)'. While they are related, they cannot simply be used interchangeably.

 **Foul and fowl**. _'Fowl'_ , a noun, meaning birds, collectively, or birds of the order 'Galliformes' specifically (chickens and more). _'Foul'_ as a noun is an unfair or invalid part of play (in sport). As a verb it is 'to make dirty'. As an adjective it means 'offensive to the senses (especially as a smell or taste), or 'wicked/immoral'. So: "murder most foul" (not fowl), "a foul odour" (not fowl, unless something is very specifically smelling of certain birds instead of smelling bad), "foul play" (not fowl), **"Herpo the Foul" (not 'the Fowl'), please** , etc. And "we keep fowl in our garden" (not foul).

It's **'Hear, Hear'** and not **'here, here'** , when used as a cheer after someone says something that is considered important or that someone very much agrees with and wants to let that be known. It's shortened from "hear him/her/them". While "here, here" is used pretty often nowadays, it's still considered wrong. May eventually end up in chapter 5.

 **Hoard and horde**. Once again one of those classics. I'm not sure if I see it used incorrectly more often than correctly really. _'A hoard' and 'to hoard'_ refer to a stash of something and the gathering of something (specific usually). "A dragon's hoard" (not horde). "He hoards paintings" (not hordes). _'Horde'_ , as a noun: 'a predatory multitude or wandering gang of beings (usually, and usually people)', or 'a large number of people'. Can be a verb as well ('to travel en masse' --> "They were horded into the room of requirement"). So it's "a horde of death eaters" (not hoard).

 **It's and its**. _'It's'_ is a contraction of 'it' and 'is'/'has'. Examples: "It is right there!" and "It has just gone by" become "It's right there!" and "It's just gone by". _'Its'_ is a determiner indicating possession or association ("A snail in its shell").

 **Let's and lets**. For this one I'll refer to chapter 4 of this work, which deals with the apostrophe.

 **Lie and lay (and lied, laid, lain)**. To _'lie'_ ( **lie, lies, lying** \- past tense **lay** , past participle **lain** ) is a verb meaning 'to be in a (horizontal) resting position' ("She's lying on her bed", "I will lie on my bed", "He layed on the bed", "They have lain on their beds"), 'to be/remain in a specified state' ("Hogwarts lies in ruins now"), or 'to be situated in a certain position/direction' ("Hogsmeade lies near the train station where the Hogwarts Express stops"). As a noun it's the way in which something lies ("the lie of the land" and yes, it can also be the 'lay of the land'. The difference is mainly British and American usage). To _'lie'_ ( **lie, lies, lying** \- past tense **lied** , past participle **lied** ) is a verb meaning 'to tell a lie', 'to say things that aren't true'. The noun means 'an untruth/false statement'.  
'Lay' as we have just seen can be the past tense of 'to lie' in one of its meanings, but _'to lay'_ ( **lay, lays, laying** , past tense **laid** , past participle **laid** ) is also a verb meaning 'to put something down gently/carefully' ("He lays down Teddy for his nap"), 'to put down/set in position for use' ("to lay the table", "to have your carpet laid"), or 'to produce an egg' ("the chicken laid an egg"). It is also used in a few expressions and as slang (for having sex). As a noun it means the general appearance or position/direction of an area ("the lay of the land"), or it's slang for sex. 'Lay' can also be an adjective meaning 'not ordained' or 'not professional' ("a lay preacher", "a lay member of ...") and it is also a noun meaning 'a short lyric or narrative poem'.

 **Loose and lose**. _'Loose'_ is a verb or adjective meaning 'to release or fire', and that something is not tight or firmly fixed. Examples: "I loosed a knot", "A loose tooth". _'Lose'_ is a verb that means being unable to find something or no longer having something. Examples: "He loses his keys", "We might lose the game"

 **Manor and manner**. _'Manor'_ , noun - large country house with lands. _'Manner'_ , also noun - polite behaviour, the way in which things are done.

 **Navel and naval** are different things. _'Navel'_ is your belly button ('the umbilicus'). _'Naval'_ is 'of the navy' ("a naval officer").

 **Ones, one's and once**. _'Ones'_ \- plural of 'one', used like: "there are holes in my socks, I need new ones", or: "those people over there are the old ones". _'One's'_ is either a contraction of 'one is' and 'one has', or a determiner indication possession or association ("One must protect one's interests"). _'Once'_ is an adverb meaning 'one (single) time' --> "I will tell you only once"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially going to start with what I can remember, going to add more as I come across it. Feel free to submit things in the comments, please also point me to at least one instance of what you're submitting so I can take a look before I decide to add it.  
> Other fandom-specific mistakes than HP are also welcome, though I will not make a separate chapter for those (or link the work to other fandoms than HP) until I have a reasonable amount of them.
> 
> I've now written some of these words so often that they're beginning to look weird and not like real words.  
> This is already longer than I thought it would be :/


	3. Spelling errors and confusing the spelling of one word for the spelling of another, part 2

**Palette and palate**. I see people using 'palette' more often than 'palate' these days. Until they change the dictionary to accommodate that, though, here's why it's 'palate' when it comes to mouths and taste. _'Palate'_ is a noun. It's the roof of the mouth and the ability to appreciate or distinguish between flavours (i.e. "This food was clearly not meant for sophisticated palates" and see also "the food was unpalatable"). Can be used figuratively. _'Palette'_ is also a noun and can be the board on which artists mix their colours, the range of colours the artist uses, the range or variety of tones in music (tonal palette), or a make-up case.

 **Past and passed**. _'Past'_ \- as an adjective it means 'gone by' or 'no longer existing'. As a noun, 'the past', it's the time before now. As a preposition it's 'beyond' in time or in space ("It's now past 3 in the afternoon and she's still not here", "We've gone past our exit, we need to turn back"). As an adverb it indicates time or a thing going by ("An hour went past like it was nothing", "That swan swept past like it was the queen"). _'Passed'_ is the past tense or past participle of the verb 'to pass' ("He passed through town recently"). Don't use 'passed' when you mean 'past'. The mistake doesn't generally go the other way, but I have seen that too.

 **Peek, Peak and Pique**. _Peek_ , noun or verb, 'a quick or furtive look' and 'to look quickly/furtively' or 'to protrude slightly so it's just visible'. "He was peeking through his neighbour's window". "I want to take a peek". "The stain was peeking out from under the rug". _Peak_ , noun or verb. As a verb, it means 'to reach the highest point' ("He peaked in his twenties", to refer to someone reaching their highest success during that time). As a noun, it is the pointed top of a mountain, a pointed part/shape in general, and the point of highest activity/achievement/quality. _Pique_ (not to be confused with piqué, which is a fabric pattern, related though), noun or verb. The noun means 'a feeling of irritation or resentment, often as a result of a slight, especially regarding pride'. "He flounced out in a fit of pique". As a verb it is 'to feel irritated/resentful' or 'to arouse curiosity/interest'. "The rules of Quidditch piqued her interest", or "He was piqued by the man's dismissiveness". And yes, they all sound the same. 'Pique' too, yes, which rhymes with 'clique', and neither 'pique' nor 'clique' rhyme with 'tick'.

 **Poor, pour and pore**. _'Poor'_ is an adjective meaning 'lacking in money' or 'of inferior quality/standard' or 'deserving of sympathy'. Sometimes a noun ("the poor"). _'Pour'_ is a verb meaning 'to fall heavily' or 'to flow heavily in a steady stream'. _'Pore'_ can be a noun or a verb. As a noun, it is a very small opening in a surface (especially skin). As a verb, it means 'to be absorbed in reading or studying something'. These are all mistakenly used instead of each other in various situations, but where I most often see it go wrong is a specific expression: "to pore over [a book or text]", where yes, _pore_ is the one that should be used. There, 'pour' is often used instead. I'm always left wondering what, exactly, they're going to be pouring over that poor book/scroll.

 **Quite and quiet**. _'Quite'_ , adverb. It means 'to an absolute extent', 'completely' or 'to a significant extent', 'fairly'. Yeah... Examples: "That is quite wrong", "It is quite cold in here". It can also be an exclamation, a loose statement. _'Quiet'_ , an adjective meaning 'silent' and a verb meaning 'to make or become quiet/peaceful'.

 **Rein, reign and rain**. _Rain_ , noun or verb. It is moisture that falls down to earth from clouds, as a verb: moisture falling down to earth. It can of course also be used figuratively both as a noun and a verb. _Rein_ , verb or noun. As a verb, to guide a horse using the reins, which are (noun) straps attached to a horse's bit used to guide it. Often wrongly spelled 'reign' in expressions: "rein (someone or something) in", "take (over) the reins", "draw in the reins". _Reign_ , verb or noun. To rule, the period of rule. "She had a long reign", "They reign supreme". Most importantly: it's **"free rein"** , not "free reign". The term comes from horseback riding.

 **Renown** , not **reknown**. If something is renowned, it is well-known. That's probably where the mistake comes from. 'Renown' comes from _renoun_ and _renomer_ (to make famous).

 **Rogue** is not the same as **rouge**. I can't believe I'm actually writing this one... _'Rogue'_ , noun or adjective - a mischievous/dishonest/worthless person (or, in gaming, generally some sort of thief), or renegade/dangerous/uncontrollable (i.e. "a rogue bludger"). It is also a verb but I've never actually seen that one used. _'Rouge'_ , noun or adjective - red cosmetic powder, or red (french origins), can be used as a verb.

 **Roll and role**. Another classic that I can't quite believe I'm really covering. It is 'roleplaying', not 'rollplaying', no matter how many dice you 'roll' in a 'roleplaying' game. You play a 'role', not a 'roll'. You 'roll' your dice, you don't 'role' them. _'Roll'_ is a verb or noun. As a verb it has quite a few meanings and if I listed them all this might just be the longest bit of text here, so I'll just go with one or two: 'to move on wheels' or 'turning over and over on an axis', for example. As a noun it might have even more meanings, most related to the meanings it has as a verb. For example: 'something rolled up into a (more or less) cylindrical shape'. It can, however, also mean 'a small loaf of bread (for one person)'. _'Role'_ is a noun meaning 'a part someone plays'.

 **Safe and save**. _'Safe'_ is an adjective meaning 'shielded/guarded/sheltered', or a noun in which case it's a cabinet usually made of metal with a complex locking mechanism, that people put valuables in. _'Save'_ is a verb meaning 'to rescue' or 'to store', or a noun in very specific instances of sports ("a great save by...") or computing (saving data).

 **Should've** is not **should of** , see 'would've'

 **Taut and taunt**. _'Taunt'_ : 'to provoke' as a verb, 'a provocation' as a noun. _'Taut'_ , an adjective meaning 'stretched, tight or controlled'. "Taut muscles", not "taunt muscles", please.

 **Tenets and tenants** are two different words with different meanings. What goes wrong here is that a lot of people seem unaware that 'tenets' exists and use 'tenants' instead. "The tenets of faith", not the tenants. They're not renting space there (a tenant is someone who rents property/land from someone). _'Tenets'_ , plural of 'tenet', are the principles/beliefs of a religion/philosophy, especially the most important ones of that religion/philosophy.

 **Their, they're and there**. _'Their'_ is a determiner (3rd person plural or neutral singular); it signifies belonging or association. Examples: "Their car was stolen" or "Are we going to their house?". _'They're'_ is a contraction of 'they' and 'are'. Example: "They are far too focused on spelling" becomes "They're far too focused on spelling". _'There'_ is an adverb that indicates place or position (or to call attention to something/someone). Examples: "I really don't want to go there" or "She's in her room and has been there for days now"

 **Then and Than**. First things first: it's usually then, not than. For the why: _'Then'_ is a lot of things, usually an adverb, though sometimes a noun ("since then") or adjective ("The then president of..."). It refers to time in order, next in a series, it can mean something like 'in addition' ("We went here and then there", "First socks, then shoes, then coat", "Then there is this kid"). It denotes consequence (and can be omitted sometimes), is used as 'in that case', or as a way of summing up ("If you do this, then that happens", "It's like that, then", "Our conclusion, then, is..."). That's not even all of it. _'Than'_ is a conjunction or preposition. It introduces exception or contrast, or the second member of a comparison ("I want to be anywhere other than at home", "He is older than she is", "She is larger than me").

 **To and too**. _'To'_ is an adverb or preposition with several meanings that deal with movement/direction/position/result. _'Too'_ is an adverb that means 'also' or 'in addition' ("Take Harry, too" or "Oh yes, I was there too"), or it means an excessive degree of something ("too much").

 **Utmost and upmost** (even google asks if you meant 'utmost' if you search for 'upmost'). It's probably very tempting to use 'upmost' instead of 'utmost' (and I have only seen the mistake go that way), since 'up' is a word people know while 'ut' is to many people a meaningless sound on its own (it comes from Old English, where ut = out). _'Utmost'_ is an adjective meaning 'most extreme' or 'greatest' ("it is of the utmost importance"). Can be a noun. _'Upmost'_ is an adjective that is a variant of 'uppermost' and the latter is used more often. It means something like 'the highest position' of something ("the upmost/uppermost floor of the building"). While 'upmost' can be used more figuratively ("that thought is upmost in his mind"), it's still about position, and 'utmost' is about degree.

 **Voilà** , from French, is an interjection used to call attention to something ("Voilà! Hagrid's Hut."), to signify the sudden appearance of a thing, or to express satisfaction/approval of something. Essentially it means "look there!" It is not spelled like this: **viola** (which is a musical instrument), or like any variation of this: **wa-lah**.

 **Waist and waste**. _'Waist'_ (noun) is the part of your body below your ribs and above your hips, or the narrow part in the middle of something such as an hourglass. _'Waste'_ , verb, noun or adjective. As a noun, it cab be rubbish (as in unwanted materials), a large area of barren land, or it's used in expressions like "a waste of time". The verb can mean 'using/expending carelessly/to no purpose' ("Don't waste water", "that joke is wasted on Binns"), becoming progressively weaker ("Ginny was wasting away"), ruining/devastating something ("invading forces wasted their country"), or in expressions like "time is wasting". As an adjective it signifies that something was not used/cultivated or that it was discarded ("waste ground" or "they are disposing of waste materials").

 **Wary and weary** are not the same word. They _are_ both existing words though, _'wary'_ meaning 'cautious' or 'on guard' and _'weary'_ meaning 'tired'.

 **Whose and who's**. Usually people use 'who's' instead of 'whose', but the other way around is not unheard of. _'Whose'_ , pronoun/determiner meaning 'belonging to or associated with (unknown) person' ("Whose broom is this?"). _'Who's_ is a contraction of 'who' and 'is' or 'has'.

 **Wondering and wandering** have different meanings. They are often mistakenly used in either direction. _'To wander'_ means 'walking/moving in a leisurely/aimless way' and has a few other, similar, meanings. 'Wandering' can also be an adjective. So: "wandering around", not "wondering around". _'To wonder'_ means 'to want to know something', 'to feel doubt', or 'to feel amazement'. 'Wondering' can be an adjective as well. So: "I was just wondering if...", not "I was just wandering if...".

 **Would've** is not **would of**. It is a contraction of 'would' and 'have', not the words 'would' and 'of' beside each other. 'Of' is not a verb.

 **Wretched, ratchet, ratched, retched**. _'Wretched'_ is an adjective meaning 'very unhappy' or 'in an unfortunate state'. _'Ratchet'_ as a noun is a particular piece of machinery, as a verb it means 'to operate by means of a ratchet' or 'to rise or fall as a step in (what looks to be) an irreversible process' ("ratcheting up interest"). However, it (and 'ratched') can also mean something different than the previous noun and verb meanings: several things, including something similar to 'wretched' (and it may have originated as a different spelling of wretched). I'm not familiar enough with this usage to try to describe it in any detail, or even to provide links (I don't know enough to be sure they're accurate). I've simply seen it used now often enough to realise it's not necessarily an error and would probably go in chapter 5 in many cases. So you're on your own there for any searches (and it's likely you're already better informed on it than I am anyway :P). If you're writing in a certain way, 'ratchet' may be just what you're looking for. At other times, though, you will have been looking for 'wretched' instead. _'Retched'_ , now, is the past tense of the verb 'to retch'. It means vomiting.

 **Your and you're**. _'Your'_ is a determiner (2nd person); it signifies belonging or association. Examples: 'Your habits are disgusting' or 'This is your fault'. _'You're'_ is a contraction or 'you' and 'are'. Example: 'You are an annoying elitist snob' becomes 'You're an annoying elitist snob'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially going to start with what I can remember, going to add more as I come across it. Feel free to submit things in the comments, please also point me to at least one instance of what you're submitting so I can take a look before I decide to add it.  
> Other fandom-specific mistakes than HP are also welcome, though I will not make a separate chapter for those (or link the work to other fandoms than HP) until I have a reasonable amount of them.
> 
> I've now written some of these words so often that they're beginning to look weird and not like real words.  
> This is already longer than I thought it would be :/


	4. That doesn't mean what you think it does

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes people want to use fancy words or expressions, or just a bigger variety of words and expressions, to improve the reading experience of their work. Understandable. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out as intended. I hope this helps.

**Amenable** is not **amiable**. Someone isn't amiable to compromise, they're amenable to it. If they _were_ amiable to it, that'd mean they're friendly or pleasant to it, not that they would consider it or be willing to do it.

 **Prostrate**. People don't generally spell this wrong (though the effect, if they did, might very well be funny). They do often mistake the meaning a bit. It doesn't just mean 'to lie down' or 'lying down'. It means 'to lie face-down', 'to be in a face-down, lying position (on the ground)'. It also doesn't just mean something like 'to grovel', or 'to submit', or 'to revere', or 'to beg (for mercy)'. When someone prostrates themselves before you, they're doing (one or more of) those things by lying down before you with their face turned to the ground.

 **Vaunted or vaulted?** I was dithering on where to put this one, but in the end I think it fits here better. People often use 'vaulted' when they mean 'vaunted', but there are also instances where they could both fit. They are both adjectives and can also be verbs, and it's most often as adjectives that confusion occurs. _'Vaunted'_ means '(excessively) praised or boasted about' (and the verb means to excessively praise or boast about). This is where "his vaunted opinion" and other such things are often turned into "vaulted opinion" by mistake. _'Vaulted'_ means 'arched or domed', referring to a room or building. Imagine an old church, the arches possibly supported by pillars. It can also mean 'provided with a vault' or 'placed within a vault'. The verb has a very different meaning (leaping, or jumping over something). Now, I've seen at least one text before where someone was talking about a very famous church, using 'vaunted' to describe it, and I was genuinely unsure whether they meant 'vaunted' or 'vaulted'. Both applied, context didn't really clarify it much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially going to start with what I can remember, going to add more as I come across it. Feel free to submit things in the comments, please also point me to at least one instance of what you're submitting so I can take a look before I decide to add it.  
> Other fandom-specific mistakes than HP are also welcome, though I will not make a separate chapter for those (or link the work to other fandoms than HP) until I have a reasonable amount of them.


	5. It's an apostrophe! 's and ' in general

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I am devoting an entire chapter just to the apostrophe. Because I see this getting weirder by the day in fanfic, quite frankly. People are adding apostrophes in front of the s any old where now? This way this thing is harder to miss.

Alright so the apostrophe (') in English. It's an indicator of possession when used before an s, as such: "Tim **'s** mess". Or if a name already ends in -s, you can put the apostrophe after it ("James' mess") or add an entire 's ("James's mess"). **Not** though, with possessive pronouns! Those are (singular) 'mine', 'yours', 'his, hers, its, theirs', (plural) 'ours', 'yours' and 'theirs'. No more her's and our's please.  
I know that in some languages the apostrophe is also used to indicate a plural if the word ends in certain vowels (looking at you, Dutch), it's not used that way in English though. You never have to write 'umbrella's' unless something belongs to the umbrella. Plural in English would just be 'umbrellas'. Seeing that one happen more and more. Additional example: 'hero' is the singular, and the plural is 'heroes'. Not 'hero's' or 'heros'. And once more: 'baby' becomes 'babies' (not baby's or babys).

Now for family names. When you say "I'm going over to the Weasleys' ", you're using **s'** (or 's- "the Weasleys's") because you're actually omitting a word like 'house' or 'place'. It's a possessive 's (only s' because there's already an s at the end since we're referring to all the Weasleys in general. If there were only one Weasley, you could say "I'm going over to Weasley's"). You don't use 's (or s') in a sentence like "Hey, I see the Weasleys over there!" because you're just seeing more than one Weasley (probably all or most of the family) and a plural doesn't need a 's. Most of the time, you just stick the s right on the family name. Unfortunately, lately I see people sticking the 's on the family name most of the time.

If the family name ends in -s already (i.e. "Jenkins"), it'd be like this: "I'm going over to Jenkins' " (going over to the house of one Jenkins), "I'm going over to the Jenkinses' " (going over to the Jenkins family residence), "Hey, I see the Jenkinses over there!" (seeing the Jenkins family over there), "Hey, I see Jenkins over there!" (seeing one Jenkins over there).

Using 's on verbs before the final s when they end in -s (with the second and third person singular forms, for example), like this: "say's" or "jump's". **Please, don't**. I suspect this might have something to do with the apostrophe in ' **let's** '. That one is a contraction, though ('let' and 'us' become 'let's'), not the same as something like "he jumps". _'Lets'_ , like 'jumps', would be the third person singular (present) of the verb. _'Let's'_ (the contraction), however, is the first person plural imperative ("Let's go!"). The first person singular imperative, for comparison and further clarification, is 'let' ("Let me do that for you").

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's probably going to be the shortest chapter lol....
> 
> For Dutch writers: it's actually almost the opposite of what we do: in English it's 's for possessive, just s for plural. Dutch just sticks the s on for possessive without the apostrophe, while it uses 's for some plurals (when they end in certain vowels).


	6. No, that one's actually correct

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes, another chapter. This one on things that might seem wrong or awkward, but actually aren't. Well, they might still be awkward, tbh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might never be an incredibly long chapter, but I can already tell that I'm going to find more than just these two things that I'm starting with.

**Blond and blonde**. From French, where 'blond' is the masculine form and 'blonde' the feminine. That refers to 'a man' ("un blond") and 'a woman' ("une blonde"), but also to grammatical gender (the gender of words). In English, it was initially used the same way, with 'blond' for men and 'blonde' for women (and the divide for grammatical gender as well). In fact, some style guides still adhere to that rule. Others, however, recommend using only one or the other (often advising 'blond' over 'blonde' due to negative connotations of the latter). In the English of various countries, you will see people using them interchangeably. Some people might only use one of them for any gender, others might use them both (but not divided over gender lines of either people or words), etc. You could argue that it's still wrong to use 'blonde' to refer to masculine words or 'blond' to feminine words, but by now convention has been well broken for quite a while and the change is unlikely to be reversible even if that was wanted. The same goes for **brunet and brunette** , by the way.

 **Irregardless** belongs in this chapter, no matter how much it pains me. It is a clunky and nonsensical version of **regardless**. Nonsensical, because the ir- at the front signifies a negation, making 'irregardless' a sort of double negative, the opposite of what is actually meant with the term. I'm not sure why people use it.

 **Staunch and Stanch**. They're two ways to spell the same word and both are correct.... for now. 'Staunch' is more frequently seen as an adjective ("Staunch companion"), while 'stanch' is more often used as a verb ("to stanch the flow of..."). Style guides are beginning to prescribe that usage, so maybe in the future, this one will actually move from this chapter to chapter 2. For now though, it's still not actually incorrect to use either one for either purpose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially going to start with what I can remember, going to add more as I come across it. Feel free to submit things in the comments, please also point me to at least one instance of what you're submitting so I can take a look before I decide to add it.  
> Other fandom-specific mistakes than HP are also welcome, though I will not make a separate chapter for those (or link the work to other fandoms than HP) until I have a reasonable amount of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Initially going to start with what I can remember, going to add more as I come across it. Feel free to submit things in the comments, please also point me to at least one instance of what you're submitting so I can take a look before I decide to add it.  
> Other fandom-specific mistakes than HP are also welcome, though I will not make a separate chapter for those (or link the work to other fandoms than HP) until I have a reasonable amount of them.


End file.
